BLS: Nursing home injury rate still high

Nursing homes still are among the most dangerous U.S. workplaces, and there was little improvement in safety from 2012 to 2013, according to the latest annual data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Private sector nursing and residential care facilities had a 7.3% incidence rate for nonfatal workplace illnesses and injuries in 2013, according to the report released in December. This marked the highest rate among industries with 100,000 or more cases.

Musculoskeletal injuries caused by lifting and transferring residents are a major hazard in long-term care. Despite initiatives to reduce these incidents, the rate of nonfatal occupational injuries was basically unchanged for nursing facilities between 2012 and 2013.

For private industry nursing homes, the 2013 rate was 7.0%. For state and local government facilities, the rate was 13.2%. This was the only double-digit incidence rate across all public and private sector industries.

For the U.S. workforce as a whole, the illness and injury incidence rate ticked down from 3.4 cases per 100 full-time workers to 3.3 cases.

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